#20 James A. Garfield- The Fallen Reformer

#20 James A. Garfield- The Fallen Reformer

Garfield worked various jobs in his younger years entering politics in 1857. He served on the Ohio Senate (1859-1861) and then joined the Union Army where he helped recruit the 42nd Ohio Volunteer infantry and became its colonel. After commanding a brigade at the Battle of Shiloh (1862) he served as chief of staff in the Army of Cumberland, where he was promoted to major general after his part in the Battle of Chickamauga (1863). He served on the U.S. house of representatives (1863-1880) where he also held titles as chairman on the house committees on Military affairs (1867-1869), Financial services (1869-1871) and Appropriations (1871-1875).

1881;

• Garfield becomes the 20th President of the united States at the age of 49. Chester A. Arthur was his Vice president.
• New York senators Roscoe Conkling and Tom Platt resign to protest
  Garfield’s removal of New York nominees to secure Robertson’s confirmation.
• The Senate confirms Robertson as collector of customs for the port of New York.
• Clara Barton organizes the American Association of the Red Cross, modeled after the International Red Cross, in Washington, D.C.
• Charles J. Guiteau, a mentally unstable Stalwart attorney who had
  been denied a consular post, shoots Garfield in a Washington railroad
  station. “I am a stalwart,” Guiteau proclaims. “Arthur is now President
  of the United States.”

GARFIELD SHOT IN THE BACK

• Established in 1880, the Normal School for Colored Teachers, now Tuskegee University, officially opens its doors in Tuskegee, Alabama.
• President Garfield dies from blood poisoning and complications after surgeons search endlessly to find the lost bullet in Garfield’s back, lodged in his pancreas. He was laid to rest in Cleveland, OH

GARFIELD’S TOMB

Garfield set out to reform the “spoils system” by which politicians gave their friends low-level political offices. He never paid a great deal of attention to securing himself, likening the possibility of being assassinated to the same chance of being struck by lightning; impossible to prevent, pointless to worry about. Even after he was shot he didn’t seem too concerned by those around him.

Famous quotes;

“If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written
upon the heart. The spirit should not grow old.”

“The truth will set you free, but first it will make you
miserable.”

“History is philosophy teaching by example, and also warning;
its two eyes are geography and chronology.”